The Chosen has now been translated into over 50 languages, more than any other TV show in history, but the show isn’t stopping there. Come and See, a Christian nonprofit with deep roots in the Bible translation industry, shared that they have plans to translate the show into 550 more languages.
“We’re taking a media project, a multi-season TV series about the life of Jesus and His chosen followers, and translating that into 600 languages, which has never been done for a TV show of any kind,” said Stan Jantz, president and CEO of Come and See. “It’s an extraordinary feat, but we’re excited about being in that process.
“The most translated efforts going on are around the Bible,” Jantz continued. “And you have no doubt heard of Every Tribe Every Nation, which is a collection of Bible translation agencies, and their goal is to translate the Bible into every language on earth, and there are about 6,000 of them, by the year 2033, and so that many people will have at least a New Testament and probably about 95 percent will have the whole Bible in their heart language.”
The impact of translating the show into more languages has already been felt in communities across the world. Jantz shared a story about a woman in India who first watched the show in English, but it hit differently when she watched it in Hindi.
“She just said, ‘Thank you for translating it into Hindi because it was so much more meaningful for me to see it and experience it in my heart language,'” Jantz said.
Over in Madagascar, the country’s president personally requested a translation into Malagasy after watching the show in English. The show was then broadcast in public places and even in prisons and orphanages across the country.
“A year later, we are still hearing results of people who have been impacted by this,” Jantz said. “They did a whole country-wide celebration… It’s The Chosen, but really, it’s Jesus.”
This isn’t the first record The Chosen has broken. It’s the largest crowdfunded project in history, has been streamed over 500 million times and reached more than 108 million viewers since it first aired.
